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I am usually an R user for all my statistical analysis work, but I wanted to learn Python. At the time I did not know that Python comes native to the Mac OS, so I went to python.org and installed Python 3.4.2 on my Mac. This created a Python folder in my Applications from where I can access IDLE. For my purposes specifically, I also needed a few libraries, namely Pandas and Numpy. After some research I learnt that the best way to do this was to get Anaconda.

Hence, I went ahead and installed Anaconda for Python 3.4 from their website. Now, the issue is, the Anaconda launcher came with its own IDE called Spyder and I found that this was much easier to use than IDLE, since it contained all the libraries I needed already. So this raised a couple of questions for me:

  1. Do I still need the Python 3.4 I installed from python.org? If not, how can I remove this? I should mention that I'm not very familiar with how the Mac command line works, so if I could get instructions that have more detail, it would be easier for me

  2. Do I have 2 installs of Python 3.4 on my Mac now or did the Anacondas one replace the one from python.org? If this is the case, can I just go ahead and delete the Python 3.4 folder in my Applications folder (which contains IDLE, etc.)?

jonrsharpe
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Abbas Zaidi
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1 Answers1

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You now have three versions of Python on your Mac -- Anaconda will have installed itself into the directory anaconda in your home directory. You can remove the python.org install by following the instructions at: https://docs.python.org/3/using/mac.html?highlight=uninstall -- you may need to use the command line and rm command to remove files (for example, the symlink in /usr/local/bin/). Don't do this unless you're sure of what you're doing because they don't go to the Trash.

Important note: do not delete or modify the system-provided Python in /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework and /usr/bin/python or you will hose your operating system and need to reinstall Yosemite.

If this all seems too scary, I would live with the bloat as long as anaconda is your default Python and you're happy with it.

jonrsharpe
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xnx
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  • Okay i see. Thanks a lot for clarifying. I wanted to try and delete the python.org version. Could you just clarify something for me? I had initially started reading the instructions on how to remove it, but there are some things in this that i don't really know how to manipulate. Like i understand that i should bring up the terminal, and then change the version from 2.7 to whatever version is on here. – Abbas Zaidi Dec 10 '14 at 16:19
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3819449/how-to-uninstall-python-2-7-on-a-mac-os-x-10-6-4/3819829#3819829 - Should i change it to 3.4.2 or 3.4 because if i do 3.4 only won't it just delete both versions. Also the last instruction about removing the symbolic information i don't really understand. If you could explain that, it would be really helpful. – Abbas Zaidi Dec 10 '14 at 16:27
  • Type `ls /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/` and see which version you have installed. Replace 2.7 from your instructions with this version. The symbolic link is just an entry in the `/usr/bin` directory that points to the real executable file you'll have just deleted, so you want to get rid of that too, probably. – xnx Dec 10 '14 at 16:38